Thursday, April 16, 2015

COTW: Estate Tax Blues

Repugnants have almost zero creditbility with most working 'Mericans because it is too obvious that they cater to the filthy rich. The latest example is their proposal to eliminate the federal estate tax, a favorite hobby-horse of the inherited wealth crowd. No one except the extremely rich pays federal estate tax as this chart shows (green segment):

source: Tax Policy Center
US Person agrees that the US tax code, which has been used and abused as a tool of social policy since its inception, is too complex and loaded with special interest loopholes. But eliminating the estate tax is just another special interest exemption. As current law stands the estate tax does not effect estates below $5,340,000!  The income tax was always intended to be progressive, but the payroll tax hits the middle and lower classes disproportionately hard (red segments).  If Congress wants to make federal taxes more fair, they should remove the wage cap on Social Security tax, or eliminate the lower tax rate for capital gains.  After all, it is the same boat, right?

Paris says hello